I have a couple PS2 questions. Now that it's become more affordable (at least to me), what's the easiest/cheapest way to make it region free? I heard a couple possibilities, there is a special memory card or a gameshark 2. But I haven't been able to get cinformation on either. I did search the forum for "ps2 region" but no definite confirmations came up.

Also, I heard that the deflaut DVD firmware for the PS2 is pretty crappy. Where/how do you get better firmware?

edit: Also, I just remembered, how hard is it to modify an American PS2 to play Japanese games? Is there software or do you have to disassemble and solder it?

Thanks in advance for any info.

the best way to get the new firmware for dvd playback is to buy a Sony Dvd remote. you could also borrow the disc from someone that did however I am not sure if it would work without the remote.

not sure about how to hack them.

For breaking regions, I heard that "RegionX" is pretty good. The better firmware is with the PS2 remote, its worth the $20. The easiest way I have seen to mod a PS2, is this one chip that get plugged into one of the USB ports and you only have to solder one wire.

Thanks Joshd2012, do you have any more information about the USB/soldering trick? Like, what's the USB device called, where can you buy it, and where could I find the soldeirng instructions?

Thanks again, you've been very helpful. It sounds like it would be cheaper to buy an American PS2, DVD region mod it with region X.

gcribbs, are you positive that the DVD drivers that come with the Sony remote do more than just allow better remote functionality?

I have it and it updated my ps2 dvd driver firmware. Isn't RegionX only for PAL and Japanese machines? Will it work for ours?

http://www.gamegizmo.com/

That is the link to all that sort of stuff. I don't know how well they work, or how they work, so please don't ask. It also appears that they now have a no solder technique, tho you do have to crack open the box. Good Luck!

You are right, since the PS2 doesn't convert PAL, it could only play NTSC regions which is basically region 2 Japan. Maybe Josh can elaborate.

The people at that site I linked above said that if you use their mod chip and the RegionX disc, you can "turn any ps2" into a multiregion player. I have no idea if it works, or how it works, I only know what the site says.

I have no doubt you could multi-region mod it, but do they say it actually does PAL conversion? If so, that's a pretty amazing mod.

I know the new Game Shark 2 ver 2 will turn your ps2 into a region free player, therefore it can do pal conversion. I wanna know if theres anyway we can use older gamesharks, and without modding, to turn our mahcines to region free players.

Is there any update to this? Has anyone used the Gameshark to successfully play other region PAL DVDs on their US PS2?

The US PS2 can not do PAL to NTSC conversions and I see no way a Gameshark disc could add this function. It has to be built into the hardware.

The Xbox is the only console that has built in PAL to NTSC conversion. A mod for your PS2 to make it mult-region is pretty useless without this ability.

The Gameshark version 2 allows you to play other region dvds. Never mind the above email, it does do conversions. I have one tried it, and would work except ...

I need a tv that can play PAL signals!

It doesn't do any sort of conversion. If it did, you wouldn't need a PAL TV. All it does is defeat region encoding. If it did conversion (which is what the Xbox does), it would take the PAL image and translate it to NTSC so you could play it on your regular NTSC TV.

There is no known way to make a PS2 do that. It just passes along whatever video format it is fed. You can make it region free, but you can only successfully view DVDs from other NTSC countries (unless you have some sort of external PAL->NTSC converter, or a PAL-capable TV).

sorry, misunderstood what regional conversion meant.